We've had an intensely rainy spring--Ireland's got nothing on WNC in May for sheer screaming greenness. But it's meant that gardening is happening on a different schedule than it did last season.
Plus--there are groundhogs.
For years I have worked with intention, fencing and strategic urination (don't ask) to repel the whistlepigs that populate the hillside below my garden. But this year there must be a cleverer than usual one because my spring garden was ravaged by their monstrous appetites. Just as the romaine was ready for a first harvest, it was devoured, nibbled to a nubbin.
In my grief, I decided to plant lots of things that groundhogs don't like. Okra, tomatoes, peppers.
Lots of peppers. In fact, tomorrow morning I am hopeful I will plant the last of the six varieties of peppers that I bought. That's a lot of peppers, so it's a good thing we like 'em.
There are a few more tomatoes to plant, too. I'm all-heirloom this year--Cherokee Purples, Orange Russian, Little Mama, Grape Sprite and Mama Roma. There are a couple others that my boss gave me but I can't recall the names. Doesn't that sound like a rainbow of tomatoes?
The plant on the right above is the young woad. She flowered, went to seed and is now covered with tiny golden seed pods.
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